Preface
The 7th in the series of the highly successful International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism, “Integrating Molecular, Cellular and Metabolic Aspects of Neuron-Glial Interactions” was held at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland from August 15-18, 2006. Previous meetings were held in beautiful surroundings, the first in Carcassonne, France, 1993 followed by Blaubeuren, Germany, 1995; Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, USA, 1997, Oxford, UK, 1999, Trondheim, Norway, 2001, and Heraklion, Crete, 2004. More than 120 participants from over 18 countries and 4 continents participated in this cutting edge and cross-disciplinary meeting, which featured more than 30 invited speakers and session chairs, all recognized experts in the field and outstanding presentations by 11 graduate and postdoctoral students who were all awarded an ISN travel stipends.
David Nicholls gave the opening evening keynote talk on activity-dependent proton leakage currents at the mitochondrial membrane and the link between reactive oxygen species and excitotoxicity. The proposed link is between glutathione oxidation and energy metabolism. The first full-day of the conference started with a lecture by Carole Poitry-Yamate memorializing the seminal contributions of Marco Tsacopoulos to this field and set the stage and tone for the remainder of the meeting. Bruce German presented the closing lecture, which introduced the concept of the importance of nutrition to survival, with many enlightening points of general interest in metabolomics. In addition to evening moderated open discussions and data blitzes, an impressive group of over 70 posters presented by students, postdocs and established scientists provided the opportunity for lively discussions on topics related to (1) integration of oxidative and glycolytic metabolism; (2) glucose transport and transporters; (3) imaging cellular redox potential in vivo; (4) mitochondrial roles in excitotoxicity and disease; (5) glutamate transmission and homeostasis; and (6) metabolic control analysis and metabolomics.
The members of the Scientific Organizing Committee were: Gerald Dienel (USA), Susan Hutson (USA), Mary McKenna (USA), Raymond Swanson (USA), Kathryn LaNoue (USA), Ursula Sonnewald (Norway), Helle Waagepetersen (Denmark), Arne Schousboe (Denmark), Albert Yu (China), Andreas Plaitakis (Crete), Luc Pellerin (Switzerland) and Rolf Gruetter (Switzerland). The Local Organizing Committee, headed by Rolf Gruetter and Carole Poitry-Yamate from the Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic Imaging at the EPFL, included Jerôme Badaut of the Neurosurgery Research Group, CHUV-UNIL, Anna Rothenbühler LIFMET, EPFL, Luc Pellerin, Physiology Institute, University of Lausanne, Pierre Magistretti from the Brain and Mind Institute, EPFL, and members of the Centre d'Imagerie Biomedicale (CIBM).
We would like to express our thanks for financial support from the US PHS National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH grant R13NS056861), the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant 31C000-115013), a restricted grant from the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN), and donations from Sigma-Aldrich, PanGas, Varian Inc., Nestlé Research, Bal-Tec, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, and Dr. Jean de Vellis and the Journal of Neuroscience Research, without which this conference would have not been made possible.
This special issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Research provides much more comprehensive information about the exciting findings, conference discussions and the latest developments in the field of brain energy metabolism. We are indebted to Arne Schousboe and Mary McKenna for organizing, collecting, and editing the submitted manuscripts by the speakers of the scientific sessions.
All of the participants are looking forward to the next International Conference on Brain Energy Metabolism, which is also the Third ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference. This meeting, organized by Albert Yu, will be held in Beijing, China from June 27 – July 1, 2008. More information can be found at www.isnbeijing2008.org. We hope to see you there for another highly stimulating, insightful, and interactive meeting.
